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Category Archives: Cake

Breakfast. Cake. Could life be any better? 🙂 This is the best excuse ever to eat cake for breakfast! I mean, it’s all right there in the title… If it makes you feel any better, it’s like eating a blueberry muffin. It’s just cut into squares like cake. And has a tender crumb, like cake. But it’s not overly sweet like cake, so therefore it’s a perfect breakfast cake or snack cake. Sorry, I just said cake so many times! This is really delicious, though. Plump blueberries bursting in every bite, with a slight tang from the lemon and buttermilk. So good, and such a pretty breakfast cake. 🙂 Hurry and take advantage while blueberries are still in season!

In a medium bowl, whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter, lemon zest and ¾ cup sugar together; beat until creamy and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat just until combined. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Mix until just combined, then gently fold in the blueberries and any loose flour. Batter will be thick.

Spread batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly over the top of batter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

The move is done, we’re settling in, and we finally have internet! It’s been a while since I’ve moved and I forgot how much is involved. And over the years, especially after getting married, you really seem to accumulate a lot of stuff! And a lot of kitchen stuff, if you’re me. 🙂 So now it’s time to celebrate! And what better way than with some whoopie pies!

These are very traditional whoopie pies… chocolate (but of course!) with a marshmallow filling. And they come from one of my favorite cookbooks, Chocolate American Style. So much chocolatey goodness comes from this cookbook, such as this chocolate cream pie. I made these whoopie pies years ago when I first got this book, and my only complaint was that the filling was a little too soft and squished out too much. So, I made the cakes a little smaller and the filling a little stiffer, and we had pure whoopie pie bliss. They were so good, I pretty much refused to share… shame on me! I saved a couple for a friend, but other than that they were mine all mine. And my husband, but I think I ate more of them than he did!One Year Ago:Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

To make the cakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, beating well to fully incorporate. With the mixer on low speed, add some of the flour mixture, then some of the buttermilk; alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk and mix until the batter is just combined and smooth.

Scoop heaping tablespoons of batter onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between each cake. Use slightly moistened fingertips to gently smooth and shape the cakes, if needed. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cakes are firm to the touch. Remove the baking sheets to wire racks, letting the cakes cool completely on the sheets.

To make the filling: In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, powdered sugar, and marshmallow cream; beat on high speed until smooth and fluffy; stir in the vanilla.

To assemble whoopie pies: Match up cakes in pairs by size. Spread filling onto the flat side of one cake of each pair. To make clean edges with the filling, transfer the filling to a piping bag and pipe a small amount one cake of each pair. Sandwich the cookies together, and press the filling to the edges. Serve immediately or wrap individually in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

In celebration of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), I made a King Cake! It’s flavor is hard to describe, though wikipedia describes it as a sort of danish. It’s a yeast bread, filled, made into a ring, and covered with a glaze and colored sugars. Being a yeast bread and kind of like a danish makes it a suitable breakfast or dessert in my books! 🙂 Mine didn’t come out as pretty as I hoped, but at least it tasted awesome! For those of you who don’t know, King Cake is part of the tradition of Mardi Gras and Carnival. A fun and festive cake for a fun and festive celebration! In New Orleans, Mardi Gras is full of floats, parades, masquerades, drunken celebration, beads, and coins. Fat Tuesdays refers to the last day before Ash Wednesday and before lent begins, when you can indulge yourself to your hearts content!I’ve been to Mardi Gras once, and I was definitely too young to appreciate it. As in, it actually kind of scared me! I wasn’t a huge fan of crowds, fireworks, loud noises… totally not a good thing in New Orleans around Mardi Gras. My family and I were in town for a family wedding, so might as well celebrate while we’re there, right? So many colors, beads, floats, and people! I at least enjoyed collecting beads from each float. I would love to go back now that I’m older, and can actually drink now (and my childhood fears have gone away)!

Ever since we went, we started ordering a King Cake each year at Mardi Gras. Per our own family tradition, we would order the cream cheese-blueberry filled. It was beautiful, huge, and so delicious! Unfortunately, they started getting to expensive to ship from Louisiana out to California, so we started going without our annual King Cake. Once I went to college, I really started getting into baking and decided to try making a King Cake for the first time. It turned out great, and the shape and everything about it was just perfect.

My very first homemade King Cake, from the college days!

But stupid me… I didn’t save the recipe and the site has long since disappeared. The recipe below is the one I’ve used twice now. The flavor tastes just like I remember, and though I kind of make a mess with the blueberry filling, each year it seems to come out better. This year, it rose a lot and blobbed out, so I decided that next year I’ll make the cake rolls more narrow and longer, which I reflected in the recipe. So, sorry this post was longer than usual, but I hope you have a wonderful Mardi Gras! Throw me some beads, mister! 🙂

In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat sour cream mixture, yeast mixture, eggs, and 2 cups flour at medium speed until smooth. Reduce speed to low, and gradually add 4 to 4½ cups flour until a soft dough forms. Change to the dough hook and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Form dough into a ball and place in a well greased bowl, turning the dough to grease all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 1 hour or until dough is doubled in bulk.

To make cream cheese filling: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar, flour, vanilla, and milk and beat until creamy and smooth; set aside.

To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk. Stir until smooth, adding additional milk 1 teaspoon at a time, until pouring consistency.

To make the colored sugars: Pour ½ cup sugar into 3 separate sealable sandwich bags. Add 3 to 5 drops of food coloring to separate bags, adding red and blue to the same bag to make purple. Seal the bags and shake to distribute the color, using your fingers to break up any colored clumps of sugar; set aside.

To assemble: Punch down dough, and divide in half. Roll each portion into a 30 x 9-inch rectangle. On one rectangle, spread the cream cheese filling, leaving a 1-inch border. One the other rectangle, spread the blueberry filling, leaving a 1-inch border. Roll up each dough rectangle, jelly-roll fashion, starting at 1 long side. Place dough rolls, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bring ends of both rolls together, and twist the two rolls to form a spiral. Shape the spiral into an oval ring, moistening and pinching edges together to seal. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, 20 to 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden. Slightly cool cake on the pan on a wire rack, about 10 minutes. Drizzle glaze evenly over warm cake; sprinkle with colored sugars, alternating colors and forming bands. Let cool completely before serving.

Source: Cake adapted from Southern Living, everything else from a source long since lost and forgotten!

I lied about not posting sweet stuff, and for that I apologize. But this was just too good to not post sooner versus later. Besides, it’s breakfast not dessert, so that makes it a little better, right? 😉I’m a fan of pumpkin all year long. I love the color it adds to food, and of course the flavor! As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. And I have a few cans of pumpkin I stashed away that are just waiting to be used in something tasty! Unfortuntaely, the post mentioned that this was a very good coffee cake, but it wasn’t big on the pumpkin flavor. Thankfully, that was easy enough to remedy by replacing the sour cream with more pumpkin! This coffee cake is delicate and pumpkiny with a delicious layer of streusel on the top and in the middle of the cake. It was a huge hit with my little nephews, too, which is always a plus! 🙂 If you’re a year-round pumpkin lover looking for a delicious breakfast treat, this coffee cake is perfect for you!Pumpkin Streusel Coffee Cake

To make the streusel: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add the butter, and use a pastry cutter to work it into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside while you make the batter.

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the pumpkin puree and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing at a low speed just until combined.

Spread half of the batter in an even layer in the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the streusel mixture over the batter. Dollop the remaining batter over the streusel and use a spatula to spread it as best you can. Top with the remaining streusel.

Bake the cake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes then remove the sides of the pan and let the cake cool completely.

To make the glaze: Whisk the confectioners’ sugar, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl until the consistency is thick, but pourable; add more cream if a thinner consistency is needed. Drizzle over the top of the cake. Let the glaze set before serving.

I look around on other food blogs a lot. And I mean a lot. My husband looks over his shoulder at what I’m doing and kind of laughs at me as he sees me looking at different sites and bookmarking new recipes constantly. But what can I say… I love my food! And it’s not like he complains when he gets to try new things! When I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, I knew it was something I had to make, as soon as possible. And with the next carton of strawberries I bought.Strawberries mean summer, and it is definitely summer. Temps have been in the 100’s for a while here now, and it is HOT. So what could be better than a nice, cool dessert with some strawberries? Nothing! This is a light cake with a slight lemon kick to it. The berries are soft and almost jam-like from the long cooking time, and they pair perfectly with some lightly whipped cream. You could probably use any berries of your choice for this as well, and it would come out deliciously no matter what. As an extra bonus, it’s an incredibly easy recipe and you should have everything on hand, except for maybe the strawberries…. Maybe. 🙂Strawberry Summer Cake

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large mixing bowl, work the lemon zest into 1 cup of the sugar, using your fingers to mash the zest and sugar together. Add the butter and beat until pale and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined. Add dry mixture gradually, mixing until just smooth.

Pour into prepared pie plate. Arrange strawberries, cut side down, on top of batter, as closely as possible in a single layer, but overlapping if needed. Try to keep strawberries away the touching the edge of the pan to minimize sticking. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

Bake cake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F and bake cake until golden brown and a tester comes out free of wet batter, about 50 to 60 minutes. (Gooey strawberries on the tester are a given.) Let cool in pan on a rack. Cut into wedges. Serve with lightly whipped cream or dusted with powdered sugar.

Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, loosely covered.